On January 8, 2022, RMC-NAVHDA held it’s annual meeting. If you were not able to make the meeting, you can find the meeting minutes here.
Spring 2021 Test Pictures Available!
Mark Lance, Sharelle Gonzales, and Riverlight Images have posted the pictures from this year’s Spring Test. Thank you Mark and Sharelle for all your work at the test days this year. To view the pictures, please click on your test day:
Spring NA Test – FRIDAY photos by Mark Lance
Spring UT Test – SATURDAY photos by Sharelle Gonzales
Spring NA Test – SUNDAY photos by Mark Lance
If you would like to purchase any pictures or if you have any questions, you may email Mark at [email protected], call 720.258.5820, or contact him on instagram @riverlightimages.
2021 – Annual Meeting
Hello Everyone!
Please see the below message from our Jake Heesacker, our Chapter President. Only paid 2020 and 2021 memberships will receive a link to attend our annual meeting. As you will read below, you can now pay your dues online; making it easier than ever to stay current. THANK YOU to Steve Roberts for making this happen for us.
Candice Cooper
RMC-NAVHDA, Secretary
___________
Hello RMC NAVHDA members!
I hope each and every one of you has been able to get your dogs out and enjoy some hunting this season!
As hunting season winds down for the year, it is time to start preparing for training and testing season. Every year we kick off the new training season with our annual meeting, and this year will be no different. However, with the current state of COVID-19 and the regulations regarding large indoor gatherings, we will be holding a virtual annual meeting for 2021.
The RMC NAVHDA Annual Meeting will be held virtually on January 9, 2021 at 6:00pm.
The week prior to the meeting I will send out an invite to all of you with the link to the meeting. At that time I will also send all of you a copy of the agenda and chapter financial report. At the meeting we will discuss the dates of our upcoming tests as well as training opportunities in 2021.
The annual meeting is also where the membership has the opportunity to volunteer and vote for positions on the RMC Board of Directors. If you would like to volunteer to serve on the RMC Board of Directors in 2021, please reply to this email so I can reach out to you and discuss opportunities to serve next year.
I would also like to take this time to remind everyone that chapter memberships are due for renewal on January 1, 2021. I would also like to announce that you are now able to renew your membership (or become a new member if you have a friend looking to join the chapter) on the website via credit card at rmc-navhda.com. I would like to shout out a huge THANK YOU to Steve Roberts and Candice Cooper for getting our chapter set up to take credit card payments on the website! It makes paying our memberships more convenient for everybody! Here is the link to the website for memberships: https://rmc-navhda.org/join/
Thank you all for being members of our great chapter! Myself and the Board are looking forward to seeing and training with each and everyone of you in 2021!
Jake Heesacker
RMC NAVHDA President
Dogs with Altitude
Fall 2020 Test Images Available
Mark Lance and Riverlight Images have posted images from this year’s Fall Test. Thank you Mark for all your work at the tests and training days. To view the images, select this link: https://www.riverlightimages.com/navhdafall2020. If you have questions, you may email Mark at [email protected], call 720.258.5820, or contact him on instagram @riverlightimages. In the meantime, Happy Hunting!
RMC NAVHDA: Plans to Get Back in the Field!
Dear RMC NAVHDA Members,
I hope this finds you all doing well amidst the crazy times right now.
I’m sure you all are anxious to get back to training days and the camaraderie of your fellow versatile dog owners. I hope that you all have been working with your dogs and puppies as much as the current situation allows. We are still planning on having the training day at Cobb lake on Saturday, August 8th. We are looking to add another Saturday training day at Cobb lake in July as well. As soon as we have our permit we will post the date and also information on how the training days will look. We are having to make some adjustments due to COVID-19 regulations so these trainings will look different than we had originally planned back in February. Stay tuned and we will share more information as soon as we secure our dates at Cobb.
We are also going to start the Friday evening trainings at Surefire Kennels back up starting this coming Friday, June 12th. These trainings will look a little different as well. Each of these trainings will be a “mini clinic” covering a specific topic. Sara and myself will work with attendee’s dogs through training scenarios showing how we train through different situations and lay our foundation. They will not be NA or UT specific nights anymore. If you are interested in the topic of the week, please come join us. Signups for these will be on the website and will be active the week of the training. The information for all of these training nights will be on the website. Feel free to email Sara Heesacker if you have any questions regarding training days/nights.
I would also like to update you all on our testing situation the rest of this year. We are still planning on a 3 day test August 21,22, and 23. Unfortunately due to difficulty securing additional judges, we won’t be adding any more test days this year. If you have a puppy that needs to be tested this year, and you are not currently in our August test, I highly encourage you to read Dave Trahan’s President’s Message in the June issue of the Versatile Hunting Dog Magazine with the updated NA testing policy. I also highly encourage you to look at the testing calendar toward the back of the magazine and look at entering your puppy in another chapter’s test. There have been a lot of test days added this fall in surrounding chapters but they will fill up fast, so don’t wait to send in your entries for other tests.
Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions.
Thank you and I look forward to seeing you all in the field very soon!
Jake Heesacker
RMC NAVHDA President
Dogs with Altitude
RMC NAVHDA COVID-19 Information
To all Rocky Mountain NAVHDA Members,
I hope this finds you all well during these tough times of uncertainty surrounding COVID-19.
All NAVHDA members should have received an email today from the NAVHDA Executive Council in regards to COVID-19. As we are all aware, this is a very fluid situation that can change daily. Keeping this in mind, we are going to assess the COVID-19 situation weekly to determine if we will have the RMC training nights/days that are currently scheduled. Also, as we approach our spring test, the Board of Directors will discuss how we should best proceed. Currently nothing has changed with our spring test, but as the COVID-19 situation develops we will make any necessary adjustments.
In regards to this week’s training, we are cancelling the UT Foundation training night at Surefire Kennels on Friday, March 20. We encourage all handlers to continue working with their dogs on the exercises we went over at the last training night. Feel free to use the Facebook page to ask questions or discuss training topics. Even though we may not be able to meet weekly, we are still here to help with your training.
We will send out updates to the training schedule weekly via Facebook and Email. As always if you have any questions, feel free to send me an email or give me a call.
Thank you
all and stay safe!Jake Heesacker
RMC NAVHDA President
Dogs with Altitude
T – Shirts
Over the last couple of years, a number of members have asked about RMC T-shirts. Well, here you go! We’ve worked with a local promotional shop to come up with a sharp design that will let you show your RMC pride. It has our logo on the front and our “Dogs with Altitude” motto on the back.
We have 2 color options for unisex short-sleeve and long-sleeve shirts, plus two ladies’ designs.
Prices are $25 for short sleeve and $30 for long sleeve.
Pre-order at this link by Feb 2 and we’ll have them for you at the Feb 9 training day:
https://form.jotform.com/92026162631146
Theo Stein
2020 Training Season Begins
The annual meeting was held January 11 to good attendance. About 40 members, young trainers, and dogs attended the meeting at Sheels in Loveland. Two new board members were elected, welcome Dale Parker and Candice Cooper. Candice is the new secretary and Dale is the new member at-large. You can check out the meeting minutes here.
An ambitious new training schedule will be undertaken this year, with 33 training sessions on the calendar. The chapter has outgrown its six training day, all training levels, once-a-month training format. This year, Natural Ability handlers and their dogs will be treated to sixteen 2-hour training sessions, some held at Surefire Kennels with Jake and Sara Heesacker near Wellington, and some at Jackson Creek Kennels near Peyton with Dale Parker. Utility handlers will be treated to eleven Utility Foundation training nights at Surefire, and five day-long Utility and Invitational training days at Cobb Lake.
A chapter-wide indoor training day kicks the year off on February 9th at Larimer County Fairgrounds. View the flyer for the training day here. Signup for the February training on the Events tab. This year’s Youth Challenge events will begin at this training day. Obedience training sessions (for the DOGS!) will be held. This year’s guest speaker is Nik Wright, biologist with Pheasants Forever, who will present ‘Scouting Your Fields: Diving Deeper into Habitat and Hunting Strategies to Successfully Find Upland Game.’ A potluck lunch will be served, so remember to note in the comments section of your registration what dish you will be bringing.
Eleven Natural Ability training nights will begin March 13 at Surefire Kennels, hosted by Jake and Sara Heesacker from 6-8pm. Five NA training mornings at Dale Parker’s Jackson Creek Kennels will begin March 14 from 8-10am.
Eleven Utility foundation training nights will begin March 6 from 6-8pm at Jake and Sara Heesacker’s Surefire Kennels. Day-long Utility and Invitational training days will begin March 7.
See the Training tab for the full training calendar.
Test dates were set during the meeting, and two 3-day tests will once again be offered. Test dates will be May 15-17 and August 21-23, 2020. See the NAVHDA Tests tab for details. The board set itself the task of investigating whether double tests would be feasible. Double tests would double the number of dogs tested, conducting a completely separate test with three additional judges and using other parts of the Cobb Lake property. We should hear more on that subject later.
In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the hunting season, then let the training begin!
Rocky Mountain Chapter 2020 Annual Meeting
Hello RMC NAVHDA members!
The 2020 RMC Annual Meeting will once again be at the Scheels in Johnstown on January 11th, 2020 from 1-3pm. The address for Scheels is 4755 Ronald Reagan Blvd, Johnstown, CO 80534. We will be meeting in the training room on the second floor near the fishing shop/second floor bathrooms. All chapter members are encouraged to attend as we will discuss old and new business, give a summary of last year, and plan for the future. Anyone who is interested in a board position please plan on attending as we will hold elections for the 2020 year. We will also set training and testing dates at the meeting, so your first opportunity to enter the spring or fall test will be after the meeting is concluded.
Signup on the Events tab on the event called ‘2020 Annual Meeting.’ Please take a moment to RSVP if you plan to attend so we can get an accurate head count for catering. A map to Scheels is included on the signup event.
Look forward to seeing everyone there!
Elsa’s Journey to Versatile Champion
By Sara Heesacker, RMC NAVHDA Training Director
Life is made up of moments. “200 VC Pass” was one for the record books. A true dream-worthy moment, just as you would imagine: a pavilion filled with applause and cheer, hugs and pats on the back from people I’ve known for a long time and others I just met. It was a great moment, but it was just that: a moment. A moment that was preceded by 90 moments of spectacular honest work throughout that day. A moment that was the culmination of four-and-a-half years of moments, some incredibly important, others small and of little consequence. That build up, our journey, is the real story.
Everyone wants to hear about the moments that stop you in your tracks and leave you shaking your head thinking ‘Wow!’ The hard-hitting back, 60-yards out, not a blink of an eye after our brace mate goes on point. The cripple recovery that was handled flawlessly. 
The water retrieve in which the unimaginable happens while scrambling over rocks to get to shore, and the duck’s head catches between a foot and the rocks underwater, but she somehow still retrieves to hand. A successful blind retrieve even when her handler sent her with the wrong command. Those moments will always be etched into Elsa’s story, but they aren’t our defining moments. The defining moments came with a little more dirt, a little more sweat and a lot more tears.
Our story isn’t a short one. Things didn’t just fall into place the first time out. I didn’t have a magical formula that got us to the end with a snap of my fingers. It sure would have been simpler and that’s what everyone wants to hear. Tales of “the secret”, “the touch”, the wowing highlight reel. Unfortunately, I am going to disappoint a lot of folks. Our secret was the work. Day in and day out. We laid our foundation, slow and steady, building on it day after day. There isn’t much glamour to the work done in the backyard or the living room after the kids go to bed. Moments where a little here and a little there eventually over time became a lot. They eventually became something special and a dog that is really fun to watch work. We couldn’t have achieved any of it without those ugly, dirty, and difficult moments.
There are so many moments I wish I could go back and have a do-over. The moments that “if I would have done things right, everything would have been so much easier.” Moments where Elsa was put on the back burner because life threw us for a loop. Those moments that resulted in her not receiving all of my attention for a span of time and a missed hunting season. Places where we had to grow and fight as a team and the goal that we were trying to accomplish looked so big and daunting. Now looking back, I wouldn’t change any of it for a single second. Those moments made her the incredible dog that she is. They made me the dog handler that I am. The fight to reach the finish line created one heck of a dog in the process.
Hunting was Jake’s hobby. He would go hunting, and I showed horses. I still remember the first training day we went to. I was the only female in the parking lot. We didn’t know much about good dog work at the time, and, within 5 minutes, we realized we knew even less than we thought we did. Nonetheless, we started walking fields. Late in the day, I watched in awe as someone who would become a dear mentor and friend work his dogs in the parking lot. 
It was like watching Red Light, Green Light between a man and his two dogs. But that moment held so much more. The love, respect, and the willingness to be a team that exuded from the eyes of those two dogs was breathtaking. Not until much later did I know the titles and accolades those three had achieved.
We kept going to training days leaving our dog at home so we could focus on learning. We stayed all day. We walked fields. We watched and asked questions. Then another big moment came: sitting in the grass overlooking the steady at the blind, I met a woman who later introduced me to Elsa’s breeder. Little did I know that her dog would be one of Elsa’s grandparents. Little did I know the titles possessed or the bloodlines that made up that dog. All I saw was a handsome German Shorthaired Pointer sit calmly with his person soaking in the action that was unfolding before him. Every now and then, he was called to the water’s edge to make a retrieve. Then, without a word, he would come back and take root in the same place he held just moments before.
It was that day, that very moment, when I told Jake that I wanted a dog of my own. 
To join his excitement and his hobby. I hoped my ability to read horses would transfer to training dogs as well. I learned that body language, consistency, and voice are read by both species more than we realize or give them credit for. Everything is black and white…there is no gray. We create the gray. However, the difference between prey animal and predator brought forth a desire in me to more deeply understand how a dog thinks and reacts. The chemical and structural differences in the brain change the playing field. The types of motivations and a different type of progressional work was where my guidance took on a different role as a teammate.
When we first started NAVHDA with Elsa, I had a dream of owning a VC. I didn’t know what that vision meant. I didn’t have a training plan or progression. I didn’t know how our daily, weekly, and monthly work would look. All I knew was I had a well-bred dog that had the ability and the capacity to do all of the work. It was bred into her because of generations of handlers and dogs that had proven the work. I also knew that I tend to be slightly stubborn with a desire to excel at the highest possible level. I didn’t know what terms like “elite hunting dog” meant. My only plan was to not give up. To uphold my end of the bargain by motivating her to find success because of the obedience and cooperation that we built through daily teamwork. Time was going to pass, so we just kept working on things hoping we would accomplish something good. Looking back, the work ethic and honest attitude that was encouraged and instilled in all those small moments began to fit together and build the foundation; the framework of the elite hunter that has now taken shape in the form of a stylish liver dog.
When the work started, our defining moments started to take shape as well. Our first Natural Ability test didn’t end with my ideal score, but something special happened because of that moment. 
Three of my mentors shared with me their first NA test story: each dog had a hiccup that resulted in their less-than-desired result, yet every single one of those dogs went on to be a Versatile Champion. The impact was in the conclusion that followed each story: “I wouldn’t be the dog trainer I am today if it weren’t for that test going the way it did.” I understand now, on this side of the VC title, exactly what they meant. Every defeat was a lesson, and, trust me, we had some doozies, but we kept trying. Elsa kept giving me her all, and I kept taking her back out into the field. Every lesson, every failure, every step in the right direction taught us how to succeed the next time. A lot of hours were spent challenging Elsa and the rest of the team we train with to reach their full potential. We work together to make our handling skills better. It’s exciting to watch good dogs get better in small moments and see good teams walk one step forward towards their greatness. Because that is how our moments were created and other teams are finding their moments the same way.
I am eternally grateful for the people who shared their knowledge and experience with us. Mentors who saw my foundation work was solid and showed me how to match Elsa’s intensity to get the level of steadiness we desired. Mentors who exposed the missing piece in my Trained Retrieve yet knew they had given me the tools to fix my problem if I desired to put in the work. Mentors who wouldn’t give me the answers but would say in each of their own ways, “That’s a problem; you probably should fix that.” At other moments, sharing wisdom that only comes from putting in the work time and time again, like: “Your dog needs to have a little fun right now,” would leave me scratching my head. That advice I would come to understand later on. Judges who were bold enough to tell it to me straight. Things like: “You have an obedience problem, and you need to get that under control.” I’m thankful that they were genuinely willing to share an honest assessment of where I was in that moment yet gave me the freedom to find my path. They let me struggle but supported me through it. They let me grow and achieve knowing I needed the freedom to have moments of failure. I needed moments that came down to me and the dog searching for our own answer. One of the greatest moments of the Invitational was sharing that day with the 
mentors who have walked with us over the last four years. We were so fortunate to have many of them either judging or volunteering in one component or another throughout the day. I hope they saw that I was always listening. I hope we made them proud.
Over the last four years, my understanding of the why’s have expanded beyond what I could have imagined. This incredible dog has created a fire and passion that I never anticipated. She took me beyond checking off a list of skills that I could ask my dog to accomplish in preparation for another test and another title. She showed me how to look for real moments in the hunting fields. Moments that put you on cloud nine. Moments that drive you to wake up before dawn to drive hundreds of miles so you can walk all day watching that dog put birds in front of your gun. Being able to watch a dog produce wild birds on public land, track and successfully recover any game that they are sent on and retrieve any bird regardless of the conditions because of the moments spent preparing and coaching.
Every facet of the testing process has seen real moments in the hunting fields. Not one skill has been deemed unnecessary or unused. The honest, hardworking, focused approach that she hits the field with make every moment spent teaching and training worth it.
Elsa and I haven’t achieved all that I envision of an “elite hunting dog.” We still have work to do. There is still more I must learn and teach. More skills that I want to instill in her. She is too young, too talented, and too driven to be put on a shelf. There are still big goals to check off her list. I am so proud of how far we have come as a team, but the big key to the idea of an elite hunting dog is having the faith in knowing how far we can still go.